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Post-World War II, Russia
Dum-dum waited until they had a moment alone before he asked the pertinent question. "So, I heard you finally, officially named the kid 'Daisy Johnson'."
She knew what he was getting at. "If she wants to take either of our names once she's grown up, she is more than free to. But she's just a little girl, and both of us had made enemies. And You know what the SSR would do if they find out she's Steve's Daughter... conceived after he was given the serum."
Dum-Dum Dugan, of the Howling Commandoes, just hummed in agreement, then shrugged. "Where is she?"
"With her 'Aunt' Tasha." Peggy spoke, slightly smirking.
Dugan blinked, then grinned widely, "Bet she's loving that."
Less smirk, and more soft smile, Peggy nodded. "Actually, she is. You should have seen it when they met. When I told her I had to come here, she couldn't ask me if she could look after her fast enough."
"Really?"
Peggy nodded. "You wouldn't think she used to be Russia's super assassin counterpart to Steve, the way she is with Skye."
The talked some more, though before they parted - their mission finished, Dum-Dum had to ask, "Do they even know that you're our direct superior, with authority to reassign us on missions like this?"
Peggy just grinned softly as she checked that Dugan's present for Skye, Aka Daisy Johnson, was secure.
-
Leaning against the doorframe, Peggy was watching as the teenage Natasha Romanoff carried the two year old in her arms, dancing while the radio was playing some music.
She knew Natasha well enough, there was no need to announce her presence - Natasha would have known before she'd even opened the door.
She smiled wider as her daughter took notice, "Mommy!"
Natasha faked being exhausted as she passed the girl over, and Peggy seemlessly resumed the dance at the appropriate point.
"I don't know how you do it - Between the SSR behaving like the most difficult thing you can do is painting your nails while writing reports, your work with Colonel Phillips' office, Stark being, Stark, and therefore you having to do all the running about for his 'innocence', you still manage to look after this one."
Peggy just gave the girl a knowing glance. "Helps that she's got three amazing aunts willing to watch her during the day, and some friends her age."
"Careful about that Angie. Caught her trying to get Skye's second word to be 'idiot'."
The tone was in jest, though the undercurrent was that Angie really had. It didn't take much to believe the teenager - joking or not. Angie had practically set out to 'corrupt' the girl, thinking that the fewer people that want to put Skye into the role of the 'traditional female'... And was helped in this by Angies' rather forward-thinking brothers whom Peggy had done major background checks on before letting Skye near them for playdates with their own sons and daughters.
If they succeeded, and Peggy was sure she wanted them to, Skye would not be about the frilly things and wanting to get by on her looks, which Peggy was sure she'd have. Then again, there was a lot of Steve's personality peeking through, she was really polite, so she guessed Skye wouldn't swear much, and only when it was warranted.
-
Several Years Later
The late-teens looking girl in a black uniform with gauntlets and red symbol on a belt was fast as lightning, attacking and defending too fast to witness. Her sparring partner, who looked like she was only ten, was actually keeping up with the movements, and making her own attacks - though she wore heavy-looking gauntlets on her arms, and her attacks were not about contact.
Instead, there were bursts of, power, that kept momentarily pushing the Black Widow back a step, but never more than that, and she was back in on the offence too quick for the younger girl to get in an immediate follow up.
From the side-lines, Peggy Carter, in a business suit, smiled softly.
She was Director of a new spy organization, had a wonderful daughter, and her husband was all too willing to keep that second fact a secret. Too many issues with the SSR and various enemies discovering it too quickly had led her to the decision. The 'Daisy Johnson' Identity was more complete. Only the young girls' family knew who her parents were, and what the pair had chosen to name their daughter.
Peggy's Husband liked Skye, and Skye like him in turn. He'd quickly not only seen the problem, but made the suggestion. He'd slept on the couch for a week for it, of course. Skye didn't call him father, but he didn't expect her to. Also helped in public, she wouldn't be in the habit of calling him that.
What had stopped pretty much most of her public appearances though, was these abilities.
Skye had started to 'shake the earth' when she was nine, always triggered by her emotions. Natasha had immediately taken upon herself the duty of teaching Skye emotional control, though without the horrific methods used on herself by the red room. By age eleven, she'd gone from the occasional emotional shake, to being in constant control, able to call it up on demand, wherein she learned how to focus it. Naturally, she had been kidnapped at the time, and the people who merely thought of her as 'that kid Carter keeps around' learned she was not defenseless, and knew how to fight.
She'd done an open-palm strike, but subconsciously added her power to it, launching the guy ten feet, and no more than that because he hit a wall, though it would have been further in the open.
She looked only ten, but she was fourteen, and had started to learn martial arts from Natasha, who insisted that the girl learn how to apply her abilities within the art, how to use them in subtle ways, so she would seem to just be able to apply a lot of power to her strikes, but normal power.
She was smart, and Peggy had already let Skye choose what she wanted to learn, academically. Though Skye knew a lot about SHIELD, she wasn't interested in joining it, and Natasha had been encouraging that attitude - she was too close to the girl, and didn't want Skye to go out looking for danger, when it finds her often enough.
-
Many Years Later
"Wait, aren't you the one who said that organized spy work isn't for you?"
Natasha, looking like she was just in her late twenties, and not her real age of seventy three, just held her gaze with her slow-aging adoptive niece, who was only ten years her junior, and looked like she was maybe eighteen, nineteen. "I've gotten noticed."
"Yeah, I've been covering some of it on this end." Skye returned. "They have nothing concrete on you."
"An agent tracked me down in Istanbul. Had order to kill."
Skye blinked. "What Agency?"
"SHIELD."
It took her a second for that to filter in, and once it had, low vibrations that neither felt yet caused enough for the wood to groan in protest. "They what?"
Natasha just held her gaze steadily.
"And you want to join them? Why? It's not the same group that Mom built."
"... Exactly."
"Something's going on, and I've heard of SHIELD missions that don't make sense..."
"You mean, you want to join them to spy on SHIELD, the biggest security agency in the world who have their fingers in everything."
Natasha nodded, "... And doesn't that scare you? They have all that power, expanded well beyond what Peg would have wanted for them..."
Skye groaned. "Alright, But I'm keeping an eye on you, And on SHIELD."
-
Decade Later
"Dad." She whispered, gazing at the block of ice that held the living body of the legend Captain America, and her father, Steve Rogers.
She could feel the vibrations in the body, like a body-wide ultrasound, her minds'eye watching the slow rhythm of the heart, beating just enough to keep her dad alive, but asleep.
She kept silent after that, then felt it when she was joined in her hidey-hole. even if she hadn't felt the shudder in the air vents, she'd have felt him the moment he got ten feet, if her dad's slow one beat every thirty-eight seconds was clear as day, this guy's normal heart rate was like the sound of drums played by overenthusiastic kids.
"Whats got you and Nat so freaked out? It's just a dead guy we found in the ice."
He didn't know, she silently chanted in her head. She certainly wasn't going to tell him if SHIELD in its infinite stupidity hadn't let him in on the secret. Just because Nat was interested in the guy, didn't mean he knew much of the secrets. Or any at that.
"Nothing. Excuse me, I've gone some assholes' computers to hack." She excused herself. "Later Barton." She ignored the guy as he tried to call her back. Twenty minutes later, she'd changed all the ringtones on Barton's mobile phone, and set it to one language she hoped he didn't know. small prank, but he didn't know.
-
She watched from a distance, as he once again stopped halfway through the gate into the nursing home.
He took a few minutes, before shaking his head and left. She continued to follow, but shortly realised that he'd taken a weird route, he was trying to shake a tail. Hers.
She almost grinned as she realised it, he wasn't shaking her off - she wasn't using just her eyes. In her vibration-based senses, that near-ultrasound, he was quite different from the regular joes. His heavier, denser frame was affected differently, and his heart - fully awake, was stronger at rest than many athletes mid-run. She could probably track him from half a mile away if she tried.
When he stopped at a cafe, and took the option of an isolated table yet ordered two drinks, she realised he'd noticed he hadn't shaken her off, and was invited her to sit and talk.
She was nervous. Sure, Steve was there when she was born - hell, he'd delivered her, with Dum-Dum and Gabe having been the assistant nurses for it, and they'd all been in the middle of some german jungle. But After that, Peggy had taken her to england, and was looked after by her uncles while her mom went back to the front. It was before the final mission that Steve met his daughter for the second time, and it was only long enough to - according to Natasha - look like a fish out of water.
She still carried the picture - well worn now - of Steve, in full Captain America costume, holding her in his arms.
She took the seat, and her throat locked up as she tried to think of a greeting.
How do you say hello to your father after 65 years, and he still looks thirty for the same reason you only look twenty? And you've never actually said so much as hello, because he disappeared into the arctic ice when you were only a one year old baby?
He looked hesitant too, she was slow to realise.
But he was more able to form sound than her - pun unintended.
"Skye?"
She swallowed, and nodded.
"Okay, Nat showed me pictures of you... and well, you wouldn't be here now if you weren't mine... but why do you look..."
"Chinese?" Skye spoke, and sighed. "Yeah, I have no idea."
-
Not long after that...
"I guess you can teach an old dog new tricks." She commented.
Steve rolled his eyes as he typed away on her laptop. "Hey, you're not far off eighty, and I'm sure it took a long time before computers even looked or worked like this."
She shrugged, "true." Then she hit him. "And didn't anyone tell you it was rude to point out a womans age?"
"But you can point out mine?"
"Your my dad, us kids are supposed to." She gave him a stupid grin for a few seconds, before suddenly finding that her laptop was on the floor (not thrown, just rapidly placed gently), and Steve Rogers was proving that, regardless of her age - actual or physical, she wasn't too old for a tickle-fight.
-
Skye frowned harshly at the report.
A couple weeks ago, Steve had disappeared - called up for the Avengers. Then manhatten was invaded by aliens. and she found out that an Avenger had died before, on the helicarrier - and she was looking at the report of his revival - performed days after he was killed.
-
AGENTS OF SHIELD PART!
After blowing up a plane (with a lasergun, not her powers!) she'd finally gotten to meet Nick Fury, despite her 'ghost' status as a level 10 since Natasha joined the agency and using that access to get around shield bases.
She heard him say she was an unknown, a risk.
Coulson had said she was an 0-8-4, sort of. She wasn't. They just didn't know who her mommy and daddy were.
The team were, worrying.
The Science twins didn't seem to really feel that they were now field scientists, Agent May - whom Skye actually had met, several times, going as far back as the 90s before Natasha joined because the May family was close to the Carters though not enough to know about Skye - was either pretending to not know who she is and take the rising tide cover as truth, or honestly didn't remember her, and she was worried it was the latter, though the former would bring up the 'how are you looking so young' issue. Coulson was, well, she'd like to say different, but she'd not met the man, only had second-hand observations. He was much much more approachable than she thought he'd be, more cuddly. Yes, she thinks he's cuddly.
Ward worried her. She'd learned a lot about how to read someone, and he was very... calculating. But that was it, and the fact that that was it was what worried her more than if he had more hallmarks of being some kind of double-agent, or general asshole-in-sheeps-clothing.
Then came the bit with Ian Quinn.
"I can get in to the party." She pointed out, holding out her phone with an e-vite.
"Did you just hack your way to an invite on your phone?" Ward asked.
Fitz put in, "Awesome."
She shrugged - meaning no, but letting them think she was just being modest and that she hadn't already been invited.
-
She smiled and shook his hand.
"Please tell me this is you back in the world, not hiding away in that van of yours." Ian spoke before she could fake an introduction. She liked him, but that didn't mean she didn't know he was a douchebag. just a likable douchebag. He'd probably have gone along with anything she offered up about who she was... since he was one of the few who had known her as 'daisy johnson', her sort-of rich cover identity.
She could hear the gasps from her comms, and used all sixty-odd years of training and practise to keep her expression free of irritation.
"Kind of. I must admit, I came here with an ulterior motive."
"Spying, huh?" Ian had to ask lowly.
"Yes. I came to spy on your company." She replied, putting just enough cheek into her tone that he'd not take her seriously...
Ian's laughter at that, combined with hearing the gangs' wondrement at how she just told 'most' of the truth and gotten laughed at, almost had her smiling for it.
She raised an eyebrow at his reaction, and shrugged.
"For the Rising Tide, or for more investment opportunities?" Before she could try to keep him quiet, she didn't want it out that she was super-rich thanks to keen business acumen (even taking into account her sense of morals), along with the inherited Peggy's shares of Stark Industries, she could hear fitzsimmons mutter 'More?' "Here to steal another business from under me then." Ian muttered and gave her a half-hearted disappointed look. "Having the biggest lump of shares than anyone except Tony in Stark Industries not enough for you Daisy?"
-
Meanwhile with the team...
May brought up the list of shareholders of Stark Industries, in descending order of percentages and frowned at the number two spot, 'Daisy Johnson', and the attached SHIELD file on miss Johnson. It had no picture. But the SHIELD file did have a list of all of 'Daisy's holdings.
Including outright ownership of Hammertech, purchased mere days after Justin Hammer's embarrassing performance at a Stark Expo and the revelations that his drones weren't so much as hijacked as actually built by Vanko with Hammers' money, Hammers' facitilities and so on. Before the Expo, the company had been worth about twelve billion, shares sitting at under fifty bucks. After, the share price dropped to six bucks, before it was removed from trading and 'a private investor' bought it outright for a cool half a billion dollars.
According to the files, it was merged into Stark Industries as a subsidiary, moved to japan, and is doing well under a new name that pretty much translates to 'justin is an idiot'. May remembered the fuss over the move and the name change, and assumed it was stark's doing. But these files told otherwise. Officially, it's still owned in full by Daisy, but since she has such a large share of Stark Industries - thirty-three percent, versus Tony Stark's forty, and the remaining split between the others with no greater than ten percent - she's signed it over operationally. Not unheard of.
Other names that May recognised included AIM, actually invested in the group at the start of the new millenium, though not a majority shareholder. No wonder she'd been suspicious of the LA Lab that had extremis. Also, that Skye apparently knew all about it, even though that was one of the few things involving stark that didn't become public information.
On analysis, it looked like Skye was more a Businesswoman than Rising Tide Hacker.
More concerning, was that Skye was also a shareholder of Quinn Worldwide.
She stared hard at that, she thought about Skye's reaction to Ward and Fitz' assumption of hacking to get the invite, but now she wasn't so sure. Ten percent of QW, she'd definitely be on the invite list - 4th largest block of shares. Right behind, of all people, the man kidnapped by Quinn - Franklin Hall. And now she wasn't sure he'd even been kidnappped. They still don't know who had been talking to Quinn, but Professor Hall would have known enough of the transportation order to arrange it himself.
She waited until the comms hinted that Skye was alone, before she spoke. "You, Phil and I are going to have a nice chat when this is over."
She heard Skye's resigned sigh, and shortly after, had obviously been pulled in to a chat with another shareholder who apparently didn't know her, and somehow Skye got out of a pissing match over who gets the biggest slice of the Quinn Cake, and who has other pies. May couldn't wonder just how much she was making.
-
After the Mission
Skye looked up from her phone as Coulson and May bore down on her.
Coulson looked, lost, while May was giving her odd looks.
She continued speaking to her phone - on video call. "Yes, I know Ian's supposed to be a friend, but he's gone into dangerous waters, why else would he have moved his headquarters to Malta? We've had a disagreement, and I'm pulling out. "
Neither agent caught the start of the response, but they definitely heard the last bit, "-Loss of about three hundred million." The feminine voice seemed to reverberate with Coulson, who looked startled.
"I don't care, Pep. You wanna know what he did when he realized I'm now with SHIELD?"
"... He didn't..."
Skye waved at Coulson, as she answered, "He did, thank god my role was only to disable the perimeter fence..."
"It wouldn't happen to be something like a laser fence...?" Pepper asked, sounding suspicious.
"Who do you ask?" Skye asked noncommittedly.
"Because about five hours ago Tony started raving about his new favourite hacker that sent some specs for one, and has already blown up three labs with failed prototypes."
Skye laughed at that, "Yeah, I may have failed to mention some of the components of the projection system. Let me guess, he forgot the Vibranium?"
Even coulson heard the eyeroll in the response. "He's decided that his current stock is too low to let him loose more on prototypes. He's ran them dry making the suits as is."
Coulson gave her a pointed look, and May huffed a little.
"Sorry Pep, gotta go. My commanding officer didn't know about the 'Daisy Johnson' side of me." She eyerolled and exaggerated a sigh.
"Really? I'm guessing your history with Ian tipped them off, huh?"
"Ian commented on my shares in your company."
"Right. That'll do it. I'll let you go then. And Skye, don't forget to call me tomorrow, so I know what your position is for the shareholders meeting."
Skye didn't need to fake irritation, or the relief. "Board room Meetings, yay. So glad I chose you to represent me after Stanes' fuck up. Give the board my most sincere apologies for not being able to attend. Again. And don't let Tony embarrass you in front of his friends."
"I wont."
Skye smiled, waved, and cheered, "T-T-Y-L."
"TTYL."
Skye put the phone away, and turned an innocent gaze on the pair of agents, who were once more having to take new details about her into account.
...
After a moment, she looked startled.
"Oh right. Coulson, Pepper told me that you're invited to a tour of the new Facilities they've been setting up at an old warehouse for the Avengers. It will be a while before it goes active, but still. And you have to visit the hanger where they're designing a new Avengers Quinjet. I mean, I like the Bus and all that, and Lola. Classics. But, well, the SHIELD Quinjet is just so... military. Function over form, though it does look nice, while the Avengers' version is shaping up to be gorgeous. And Pepper told me not to take 'no they're not supposed to know i'm alive' for an answer."
Coulson took that in stride, almost. "They know?"
Skye shrugged, and glanced at May, "I'm absolutely sure the Captain does. Don't actually know if Stark was paying attention since it wasn't Me or Pepper who got the job of telling him. Though SHIELD is still around, so I'm guessing that he wasn't. Unlike Howard, Tony's never been that supportive of SHIELD, even when he had no clue what it was, only that a lot of what his dad earned personally from the company went into funding it, and he decided since he hadn't heard anything about it, it wasn't all that important." Skye rolled her eyes. "Surprised SHIELD didn't do anything when their budget in the 90s took a sudden hit of fifty Million per year, but whatever."
Coulson held up both hands. "That's... That'll be enough. Damn Skye, are you trying to give me a heart-attack?"
Skye gave him a steady look, as she answered confused, "No, and is that a I-was-stabbed-in-the-heart-and-died joke? Cuz, not funny."
-
Sometime later
Skye looked around the team, finished with an abridged version of her life story. No need to tell them she's from the forties, or who her parents actually were, or the danger.
Or how her Father, and her favourite Aunt are both Avengers, That she taught Barton a few tricks about using his bow in combat after using all of his arrows, has a handful of degrees, and actually spent time teaching at Culver University when Bruce Banner was a Student, she met Thor during one of his visits to the Avengers/Dr Foster, avoids meeting Bruce because holy cow she looks younger than him and he doesn't know about her.
Or the whole 'I look twenty-five, but I'm actually almost seventy and have Vibration-based abilities that let me fly (for a short distance) or trigger an earthquake and even stop a normal earthquake if I'm near it' stuff.
Fitz of course, had no tact. "So How much money do you have?"
"Fitz!" Simmons protested.
She laughed. "It's alright. I don't have as much as you think. I mean, I make a lot, but I'm not idle with it. I've got an account that I put about a quarter million into, the rest is divided into various ventures, and it's a lot. Something like two hundred charities, a lot of construction companies of various sorts, some think tanks, a spy agency, non-profit organizations, private medical research labs, and the various publicly traded companies that I have shares in, and for quite a few, I just put a lot of the money they pay me, into individual projects, I think the biggest single thing I'm funding, is-"
Ward interrupted this time, "You have your own spy agency?"
She bit her lip and shook her head, "Well, technically I just fund it, I'm not an owner or anything, well, except for one of the older planes..."
Simmons asked, "So, what spy agency? Maybe we've heard of it."
She held in the laugh. "I'm sure you have, it's called the Strategic Homeland Int- What?" They all stared.
"You Fund SHIELD?" The group all spoke up.
"Does that make you our boss?" Fitz asked curiously.
"No." Coulson spoke, but Skye corrected.
"Sort Of. Yes, but No, But Yes... and No."
Coulson stared incredulous, "Explain."
"Well, first... what's SHIELDS' annual budget?"
"Sixteen Billion." May answered without delay.
Skye licked her lips, as FitzSimmons whistled.
"How much is from you, then?" Ward asked.
"Well, as I was saying, the biggest single thing I'm funding comes to Eight-hundred million a year. Apparently, the threshold for a seat on the World Security Council is a minimum of four-hundred million every year for ten years. So I do have a seat on the WSC, which makes me one of your bosses, but I've not actually taken that seat, officially, so no I'm not one of your bosses..."
"But you said yes and No twice..." Simmons brought up.
"Getting to that. Like I said, I don't own it, I just fund it, and happen to personally own one of their planes." Skye waited for the ball to drop.
Coulson asked, "What, the Bus?"
"So, yes, sort of. This is my plane. " Skye grinned. "Which I suppose makes me the Team Captain." The group snorted in amusement at the self-reference, as she continued, "And it's been mine since it first went off of the active-duty roster years ago. And since it was the only Bus in a fit state to fly... without realising just who it was he was asking, Director Fury sent me a message about buying it back, we exchanged a few emails, I threatened to accept that seat if he didn't tell me what for, and when he admitted he wanted to give it as a gift for his 'right hand man' who basically sacrificed himself on the helicarrier, but survived, well... I told him he didn't need to buy it back, and if he wants, the funding for this whole thing to come out of my funding. So yeah, I sort of am the boss - I guess you could say I'm presonally funding this team, but I'm not, it's not direct, and even though I told Fury I was going to keep an eye, I didn't set things up to get on my own plane to take command. You have command of the Team. your pilot flies my plane. Your choosing the assignments. I'm just a passenger on this ride."
Skye licked her lips again, she was really nervous, hoping this didn't change much - though it was too much to expect things to go back to the loose sense of normal.
"Well, more than a passenger, but you know what I meant."
-
Several Weeks Later
Coulson was missing - captured by Centipede. Mike had been complicit only because they'd kidnapped his son upon realising he was working with SHIELD.
And Victoria Hand refused to let her do anything, went so far as to latch a monitoring bracelet on her. (Not that that would do much good, she could just shake it off.)
They'd gone after Vanchat himself, but Skye knew better than most that people like him had similar skills as her own in hiding money. Hand wanted to get at it through the man, following the Book. But She wasn't the daughter of Captain America and the original Agent 13 for nothing.
In the privacy of her quarters, she concentrated, and the bracelet steadily started to vibrate, even producing an audible ring for half a second before shattering into dust from a severely intense resonant vibration, and she had two minutes before it would be reported to Hand. Two minutes she used to call in favours - she couldn't track the money trail in that short time, but she had the foresight of getting people at the Hub when Coulson had been taken.
She stood before Hand, and shook her head.
"I'm not going anywhere. You've got a lot of intel to follow up on, you'll have teams busy for weeks. But Coulson is still missing, and this isn't your show, now." She turned slightly, and everyone in the room felt the tone of command. "May, prep the Bus for immediate Departure."
Hand didn't seem to be listening. "You can't just take this bus. There are rules and procedures."
"I don't care, and neither does this team." Skye countered. She saw May was hesitant. "Remember what I said about Coulson being our Mission Commander? Well, he's not here. Prep the Bus. We've got a full combat load coming in, five minutes." May nodded, realising exactly what that meant.
"You realise without orders, this is theft of SHIELD Property. You will be A fugitive, all of you, with the agents especially considered traitors."
Skye tensed for a moment, then a quick rapid tap on the table computer, brought up a verification screen with boxes to enter ID codes, authorization codes and counter signs.
"On the Theft, didn't you know this plane was sold to one of SHIELDS' biggest individual investors, and since it was the only Bus in flight-ready status when Coulson got this team, that investor signed off on it being assigned personally to him? Without him, authority reverts to its' owner."
Hand blinked, but didn't get it.
She entered her ID code, then her authorization code. Hand frowned as a sign/counter-sign she recognised as a Level 10 question - she didn't know the counter-sign - appeared. And Skye correctly entered the counter-sign.
Ward had entered and witnessed this, so when he saw Skye hesitate on submitting. "Are you sure, You'll be on the map."
Skye nodded, and hit the button.
"What's going on?"
Ward and Skye ignored her as Skye's file appeared - but not labelled Skye. Labelled Daisy Johnson.
Her picture appeared shortly after, followed by the rest of her real SHIELD file, most of the details redacted. But what wasn't was that for access level, it announced her as Level 10. And instead of Field Agent, or Field Officer, or anything like that, the field announcing to Hand that she did in fact have a connection to SHIELD, was it stating that she is a member of the World Security Council.
Skye turned to Hand. "I didn't want to do this. When the offer was presented, I decided to work from the shadows, because that's where I thrive, in the dark, off book. New York almost made me accept. Instead I learned about Coulson, and with his record? His Full unredacted record? No, I couldn't step into the light. I get it, you're by-the-book, that's what worked for you for years. But that's not Me. That's not Coulson, not this team. Everyone thinks of him as 'The SHIELD Agent'. That he would be by the book. But he's not. He never has been. The best SHIELD agents hide who they truly are until they're needed to reveal themselves, and Coulson is one of the best. There's a good reason Fury considers him his right-hand man. That Fury Trusts him. And Fury can count those he trusts on one hand, and isn't afraid to cut off fingers. A Man like that? Someone who connects with people even when it seems like he shouldn't? Who sees things in people even they don't think they do?"
Skye shook her head as May returned, followed by two figures. Hand stared at the pair - a man and woman.
Skye turned, and greeted, "Captain Rogers, Agent Carter." She held out her hand for them to shake, and introduced, "Daisy Johnson."
Only the tiniest movement in Sharon Carters' eyes hinted that she suddenly knew who she was. Steve just gave her a small smile, an undertone of amusement as he greeted, "Reporting as ordered."
She turned to Ward, "Agent Ward, if you could see to it that Captain Rogers and Agent Carter are assigned to a pair of our spare bunks." She turned to Hand, and raised an eyebrow.
Hand obviously felt like she'd swallowed a melon, as she looked it when she asked, "Awaiting Orders."
Skye nodded, "Continue as you were with Vanchat and his various operations. We're going to get Coulson."
Hand nodded, and left. Skye and May took a moment to watch the various reactions as Hand gave the unexpected order to vacate the bus to her teams.
"Got a Target?"
Skye grinned a little. "Oh I'm Sure I can find something." She turned to the briefing table, and continued as she worked on the computer - locking her file to level 10 Directors-eyes-only access. Fury wont take long to find out. "The Combat Package?"
"Being loaded."
May watched in silence for a minute, as Skye started to use every trick up her sleave to access bank records, and seemed to be blazing through them rapidly. Too rapidly. At that point, Skye spoke up, "Set a course for New Mexico. I want us in the air once refuel and resupply are completed."
May nodded. "Wheels up in Ten Minutes."
-
Ward stared at his 'Rookie'. "You are NOT going. They're Super soldiers. You're not Trained. And you're on the WSC, officially, now. We've got Me, May, Agent 13, hell we've got Captain America."
She huffed a little, and decided to let a little looser with her fighting skills. She eyed the punch bag, and moved over to it, and settled into one of her favourite starting stances. Ward was surprised, and gasped when she let a rapid one-two strike at the bag that first sent it swinging away, then doubled-over as she followed with a third hit it on its return swing... and it broke in half. He didn't need to know she'd enhanced the strike with her powers, that even without them she was stronger than she should be at her size, that she was physically enhanced because of the Serum. Only that she knew how to punch right at that strength.
That she could therefore take the hit and strike harder at super-soldiers.
"I could use someone to watch my back." Steve spoke up, having witnessed the whole thing.
Skye nodded at him gratefully, while Ward frowned. Given what most believed about her dad, it wasn't hard for Ward to assume that Steve wouldn't offer it if he didn't think she could handle herself after watching for just two minutes. Or three strikes.
Skye left and got her supplies from the lower storage unit.
As she pulled on her little-worn combat uniform, a gift from her Aunt Natasha, Steve approached, knowing no one was going to walk in on them.
"How are you doing?"
She sighed and settled her head against the wall. "Upset. Confused. Nervous. Pissed Off."
"Good." At her look, he added, "So long as you're not angry. Don't want to deal with a second Hulk."
She laughed a little, "Don't Joke. It was hard enough when I was nine and learning about my..." She held up her fists and wrists, her 'enhancement' gloves on to help her in the fight, so overtaxing herself wouldn't cause the vibrations to reverberate back into her own body and break bones again.
"What's got you confused?" He asked, curious.
"... I knew that there'd be a day I'd have to step into the limelight." He motioned for her to continue, "But... I dunno, something about this whole thing... something's making me take that step, and without that I wouldn't. I don't know what, though."
"If you didn't, you wouldn't be here, ready to assault a Centipede base." Steve pointed out.
"No, I'd probably be running, keeping up my 'rising tide hacker' cover."
It took him a second, "You're different. That's what's changed."
"But how? How did I change... again, I mean?" She once more looked annoyed, and weakly fist-bumped the wall in frustration.
He laughed. "I think I'll let that one go."
-
Steve threw his shield at one Centipede Soldier, as Skye blocked a punch at him from another, following up with a double-enhanced punch of her own. He heard the crack of bones, and saw as the soldier was thrown fifteen feet.
As his shield returned to him, he neatly plucked it out with assistance of the magnet on his gauntlet, and pulled out his trusty service pistol. People forgot, he was a soldier. Of course he'll use guns.
As he aimed, his situational awareness let him know that Skye had also done so, only hers was aiming near his shoulder. He knew she wouldn't she him, so of course she was providing cover as he took out one of the supers.
Then they were on a straight shot to where they heard the screams.
"COULSON!" Skye screamed as she ignored that the whole team could see - May, Ward and Carter each tackling their own soldiers, while Fitzsimmons watched from the locked SUV. And suddenly, aiming her open palms at the ground, she leapt... and leapt into the air, on a long, shallow arc practically flying over a pair of surprised soldiers who got caught in the 'backwash'.
The whole team winced as they witnessed the soldiers suddenly turn into unrecognisable pancakes, and Skye shot into one of the buildings, her power guiding her. subconsciously.
She heard the screams, for someone to let him die. And her heart broke.
"Phil... It's not real, it's me, It's Skye..." She looked at the device that surrounded his head, and without even a hand motion, it exploded into pieces, blasted away from Coulson's head, without harming him.
"S..Skye?"
She wiped his brow, he was sweating profusely, had red rings around his eyelids, and very pale skin. The more normal medical monitoring equipment he was hooked up to showed he had a slow, unsteady heartbeat, his blood pressure low, and his brain activity was almost off the scale. She watched the heart monitor, and felt it as his heart slowed even more, and for a few seconds, it didn't even beat.
For the first time in decades, she lost it. Completely, even as she saw it beat again.
-
Steve gently let her down onto her bed on the bus, and after that, left her bunk room, closed and locked the door, and turned to the shell-shocked pair that apparently, had become Skye's 'SO' and best Friend respectively.
"Let her rest. She... she overtaxed herself, badly. She'll be asleep for at least two days, and no one is to interrupt her rest. Understood?"
They both nodded.
"Coulson?"
Ward spoke up. "Simmons is seeing to him now, May's helping."
Steve turned to Sharon, who was stood nearby. She hadn't had the chance to talk to her cousin to get the full story, and Steve imagined they'd both be sticking around for it. "Head for Point Dume and alert the doctors."
She nodded, and departed for the cockpit.
"Where are we going??" Fitz asked.
Steve smiled disarmingly. "The Avengers maintain a secondary base with a medical staff on call, just in case. We're closer to there than any other Avengers Facility. Coulson will get the best medical help for his situation possible, and it wouldn't hurt Skye to get the same."
Ward blinked. "Skye. You just called her Skye."
"Well it is the name her parents gave her."
Rogers realised his mistake as soon as he'd said it.
"You know who her parents are?"
Rogers just nodded, and left to check on Coulson.
Fitz was the one who brought something else up. "He didn't seem all that surprised at how she flew over those guys... you'd think that'd be a concern for him, right?"
"Yeah, Fitz." Ward frowned as he sent a look at Skye's bunk. "Obviously, she's got abilities... and I think she used them in the fight a lot more than she was letting on. Didn't they seem to get pushed back too far?"
Fitz nodded. "Yeah... No wonder she hid from SHIELD like she did. I really wouldn't want to be on the Index."
Ward blinked, realizing that had been a concern.
-
Skye blinked awake slowly, her head was killing her, though it was helped by that someone had turned down the lights. A lot.
And she wasn't in her bunk... she looked around slowly, and found that Sharon was asleep in the chair on her left, and Steve awake, on the right.
"Hey." She croaked out.
He held out a drink with a straw, and she accepted it slowly. With that motion, she realized she felt sore in ways she hadn't felt since before the gauntlets.
And speaking of, she saw that someone had put the supression gaunlets on. No wonder she felt nothing around her. She only kept them for this very reason.
Throat drenched, she coughed and managed to speak clearer, "Coulson?" She blinked. Not what she wanted to ask, but... okay it was.
And Steve could read her like an open book, as he just chuckled at her surprise. "He's in the next room over. Agent May and Simmons are with him, Ward and Fitz were on the, Bus, last I checked."
"She Awake?" A voice interrupted, and Skye turned to see Sharon had been woken by their talking. "Hey."
Skye grinned and softly waved. "Hey."
"... That it, a wave?" Sharon shook her head, and grinning, moved in for the 'kill', and gently hugged her favourite Aunt, who she already looked older than. Sounding younger than Skye looked, Sharon spoke up, "Thought I lost my favourite Aunt back there, when that cabin exploded."
Skye blinked.
"That was you, wasn't it? Steve?" Sharon turned to Steve, who nodded.
Skye looked confused.
"You... lost it. Control. Nat had told me stories, but... I thought the same." Steve looked every day of his ninety-four years in that second, and Skye struggled to breathe. "When, when I went down, I thought I'd never..." He stopped, then looked at her, "Then I woke up, and to be told how much time had passed, I thought... there's a chance you'd already gone before me. Then you followed me around and you felt, familiar, and I didn't realise just how happy I was feeling until I knew..."
Skye found herself in a hug, a tight, shaking hug.
She'd missed out on a lot with him too, but it didn't affect her all that much, she'd live those years without him, he'd been asleep, effectively in hibernation.
She felt it when Sharon added herself.
"Is this a private party, or can anyone join?"
The three jerked apart, and all three glared at Tony Stark, who was stood at the open door... though one glare, Skye's, faltered at seeing Ward and Fitz staring from the doorway a second later.
Tony looked her over, and spoke up, "So, you're the completely un-famous daughter of the Cap." He looked her over, and added, "Don't look like much." He grinned a second later, feeling the glares. "Hey, these days that's actually a compliment. I figured you were one to hide what you could do. The less you look the more you're obviously hiding."
A second later, he frowned, as his eyesight had adjusted to the low level. "Wait, you can't be Skye. Skye's like... seventy years old now. And she wouldn't be Asian looking."
Steve shrugged. "Benefits of her father being a super soldier. This is Skye, I assure you."
Skye shot a glare at both of them now.
"What?"
She pointed at her team members, who had grown to include Simmons, May and Coulson.
Coulson looked between the pair, then asked Tony who was not treating him like a zombie, just looking at him with the clear hope that he felt well, "So, you're saying that the woman I've got a crush on is Captain America's Daughter...."
Everyone went wide-eyed then...
The first to break was, of all people, May, narrowly beating out Steve, in who laughed first.